The Madonna and Child

This depiction of the Madonna and Child is based on a lost painting by Giovanni Bellini. While a number of versions of this composition were painted by Bellini's studio, very few depict the background present here. Significantly, Bartolomeo Veneto's Madonna and Child (Accademia Carrara, Bergame, inv. 723) includes this view of the castello of Monselice in a landscape on the right (L. Pagnotta, Bartolomeo Veneto, L'opera completa, Florence, 1997, pp. 162-3, no. 5). Veneto must have been aware of the landscape in Bellini's Resurrection (Gemäldegalerie der Staatliche Museen, Berlin), which is also present in the Bellinesque drawing of the Three Marys and Saint John in a landscape (Ambrosiana, Milan). The author of the present painting no doubt drew from these sources.